$650.00
E. Mervyn Taylor, (1906-1964). Wood engraver, book illustrator, designer, typographer, painter & printmaker
One of the most important figures in 20th-century New Zealand printmaking.
Reprinted from the original 1949 Boxwood block that was used for his book "Engravings in Wood". This work belongs to the same late-1940s cluster as Huias, New Zealand Orchid and other engravings Taylor showed in Landfall – works where he’s honing that incredibly fine end-grain technique and balancing realism with pattern. By the time of Engravings on Wood, he re-presents Idyll alongside his more famous birds and myth images, which suggests he saw it as one of his more lyrical, perhaps more personal engravings rather than a strictly commercial commission.
Taylor's working in wood engraving (end-grain hardwood, very fine tools) rather than rougher face-grain woodcut, but auction houses and booksellers often use “woodcut” loosely for all of it.
Frame measures 280mm x 230mm